Super-star Sagan – the joker in the TDU pack
HE’S got Hollywood looks, loves a practical joke, and sometimes won’t shave his legs. After a seven-year break, Peter Sagan returns to the Tour Down Under as a superstar.
IF Peter Sagan – cycling’s refreshingly unique, funny and charismatic world champion – wasn’t racing his bike for a living then he says he would probably be an actor.
It makes sense, too.
For starters, the Slovakian superstar has the movie-star good looks. Long, dark wavy locks – which is unusual among professional cyclists who are constantly shaving the hair on their bodies – a cheeky smile and a steely look in his eye to match.
He is a prolific winner but he’s also a showman and he has two signature moves and victory salutes as he crosses the finish line that fans have come to love.
The first is his “Forrest Gump” impersonation which sees him pumping his arms up and down to look like he’s running as he rides across the line.
The other is the time-honoured mono, or wheelie, when he thrills people lining the roads by cruising past with his front wheel in the air.
“Life would be boring without a good laugh,” Sagan told SAWeekend before he flew to Adelaide to race the Santos Tour Down Under, which starts this weekend.
That’s why Sagan, the wannabe actor, also plies his entertainment beyond the bike.
In 2015, he and his wife Katarina got in full costume and role play to act out the scene made famous by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in the 1970s film Grease, singing You’re The One That I Want. It has since been viewed more than 1.2 million times on YouTube.
You can watch him play a gladiator in another clip. And a movie was the inspiration behind Sagan’s wedding attire when he and Katarina married in November, 2015.
His elegant suit and overcoat was based on a character from 2014 film Dracula Untold and, of course, the groom made the grandest of entrances riding a penny-farthing-style bike across a tightrope some 5m in the air.
It was all so Peter Sagan.
“If you watch the film you will notice that my jacket and coat are very similar to the ones Luke Evans (Dracula) was wearing in the scene where he was hosting a dinner,” Sagan explains.
“I liked them and I tried to make mine as similar as possible.
“Since I was a small kid I always wanted to be an actor. So maybe, if I weren’t racing at the Tour Down Under or the Tour de France, I could have ended up acting – but, of course, you never know where life will lead you.”
Where life has so far led Sagan is to the top of the world of professional cycling.
The 26-year-old grew up in Slovakia racing his mountain bike – a passion he still has, even opting to ride in that event at last year’s Rio Olympics instead of on the road as the world champion. And, right from the beginning, he carved his own path in the sport by reportedly riding around in sandshoes and a T-shirt, a far cry from Lycra and pedals with cleats.
He turned professional in 2010 and his first race as a pro was right here in Adelaide at the Tour Down Under. His WorldTour debut had a bit of everything and proved a little taste of what was to come. There was a top-three finish in a sprint, a nasty crash which he refused to let end his race, and a bold and aggressive challenge to three of the world’s best – Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde and Samuel Sanchez – over Old Willunga Hill.
If cycling fans were asking “Peter Who?” at the start of the week, they were left in no doubt after that day on Willunga. “In one of the stages I crashed and that complicated things, it was a bit hard to get back to the race but I really wanted to finish,” Sagan says.
“Not only didn’t I abandon but I was able to score a fourth place. In that particular stage (Willunga) I managed to stay in the front group with Evans, Sanchez and Valverde.
“It felt spectacular for me to have strong legs on the climbs right at the start of the season, having carried out my pre-season training in the middle of the European winter in Slovakia where it was snowing.
“I think I couldn’t have had a better start in my professional career.”
AS talented and highly touted as he was when he turned professional, not many would have predicted the heights Sagan would reach in his first six seasons on the WorldTour.
He has been to the Tour de France five times and every time has walked away with the green jersey as the winner of the points classification – or as the best sprinter.
If he wins it again this year he will equal German great Erik Zabel’s record of six green jerseys – and Sagan is just entering his prime. But the man himself won’t even entertain the thought of his potential greatness yet.
“We have a long, tough and challenging six months before we reach the final sprint on the Champs Elysees,” he says. “Many things could take place until then but, right now, I feel I’m on the right path to reach that goal.”
In addition to his five green jerseys, Sagan has also won seven individual stages at the Tour de France and four at the Vuelta a Espana.
As far as one-day races and classics are concerned, Sagan has won the Tour of Flanders (2016) and Gent-Wevelgem twice (2013 and 2016), E3 Harelbeke (2014) and the most prestigious of the lot – the UCI road world championship back-to-back in the US in 2015 and Qatar in 2016.
“The first one was a surprise, the second one was luck,” Sagan says.
In 2016, he wore the yellow jersey and won green at the Tour de France, won the European Championship for the first time and defended his world title.
“It’s hard to single out just one special moment, but when I was at the podium with the yellow jersey in Cherbourg (Tour de France), I realised how difficult it was to win it,” he says, reflecting on his 2016 season. Nevertheless, all my years as a professional rider were equally important, whether they were brilliant or not. I don’t regret anything, I never did and I never will. I always try to give my best while doing what I enjoy.
“In professional sport you can’t always win; you aren’t a robot, you will have bad days and days when things go wrong.
“If you know you did the best you could, then you must be satisfied with the result whether you win or lose. At times you learn more from your defeats than your victories.”
All the while Sagan has been racking up wins on his bike, he has never been afraid to do it his way or dare to be different.
For instance, last year Sagan shocked cycling purists when he started the season – in the world champion’s rainbow jersey – with hairy legs. Unheard of at the top level.
He continued his hairy surprise right through until March 14 when he announced to the world via Twitter – complete with a photo of his legs covered in shaving cream – that the razor was coming out.
“Happy that Tirreno-Adriatico has cancelled the stage today, because of snow. I finally have time to shave my legs,” he tweeted.
SAGAN might be a unique rider in what at times seems like a peloton of robots but he doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t think I’m different, I always try to be just me,” he says.
“You mention the battle on Willunga Hill with Cadel Evans in 2010 – nearly seven years have passed since then but I consider myself to be the same person.
“As I said, I have obviously matured. I have also won some prestigious races and worn prestigious jerseys but fundamentally I keep the same philosophy in life.
“I try to give my best while doing what I enjoy. I like riding my bike and I try to make my fans happy. We often meet spectators in races across the world that have travelled hundreds or thousands of kilometres just to get a passing glimpse of us, maybe no more than 10-15 seconds as we ride past them. They deserve our gratitude.”
And right there is an insight into why Sagan is such a popular figure in pro cycling. His online following is huge – 564,000 fans on Twitter and 629,000 on Instagram – and it’s because Sagan doesn’t take any of them for granted. He is often pictured on social media standing with supporters, signing autographs and happy to chat.
He is also quite a worldly person with interests outside of the sport, including a passion for muscle cars.
“Cycling is my life right now but I hope it will not be this way for the rest of my life,” he says. “I started riding when I was nine years old and I ride nearly every single day, so I can safely say that cycling is my life and my life is in cycling.
“I think that what might have changed over the last 10 years is the way I approach cycling and the fact I have matured as a person and a rider.
“I’m relaxed when others don’t stress me and I think this helps me perform better.
“I’m into motor racing and cars but I have lots of interests and hobbies.
“However, what really relaxes me and makes me feel happy is spending time with my family.”
Despite saying he loved the 2010 TDU and that it holds a special place in his heart, Adelaide cycling fans have had to wait seven years to see him come back.
For the past five years he has started his season either in Qatar or Argentina but the long wait for Australian cycling fans is finally over and Sagan will be on the start line in the People’s Choice Classic in Adelaide tomorrow night.
It is the start of a new chapter in Sagan’s career with the world champion taking his rainbow jersey to German team Bora-Hansgrohe, which will be making its TDU debut this week.
Switching teams meant Sagan had a busy off-season, fulfilling media, sponsor and other team commitments. But he did manage to sneak away very briefly and switch off on a two-week holiday to French Polynesia. He was soon back to work and building towards the TDU where he admits the two uphill stage finishes at Paracombe and Willunga will make it hard for him to contend for the overall ochre jersey.
“Still it would be nice to achieve a good result or victory in some stage,” he says.
“It would be good for me, for Bora-Hansgrohe but also for the fans.
“I like to feel the crowds, the thousands of spectators that line up on the roads of South Australia, and meet my fans. I think it’s important to visit that part of the world.”
And those fans have come to bank on one sure thing whenever Sagan lines up in a bike race – whether he wins or not, it is never uneventful and they will be entertained.
The world champion, at the top of his game starting his 2017 season in Adelaide, will make no exception to that guarantee.
PETER SAGAN
AGE 26
From Slovakia
TEAM Bora-Hansgrohe
MAJOR WINS UCI Road World Championship (2015, 2016); Tour of Flanders (2016); Gent-Wevelgem (2013, 2016); Tour de France green jerseys (2012-2016); Tour of California (2015); E3 Harelbeke (2014); European Road Champion (2016)
TDU race stage information and events calendar at tourdownunder.com.au